SK wrote: "You've failed, Yishai:  your blog really is boring.

What do these cutesy animations and slogans get you? You've had several days to review the TBs, and you find nothing worth serious comment?

The only thing interesting (and horrifying) here is that you are capable of doing better. Your failure to do so derives, apparently, from wilful, transcendently arrogant smugness. This smugness is remarkable when one considers that you have no action plan for waking up the average Israeli, and yet Israel will be destroyed if you do not do so.

Rather than articulate some plan, you advocate that even more Americans wave Israeli flags, as if this were in short supply in America. Would you be able to give a statistical structure to your "plan" in the form of equations? Or do you simply not care to think about cause and effect?"

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So, a few comments:

1. To all those talkbackers who deride SK and Vienna Mike - please stop it. If anything is clear about these two people is that they give a damn. Which is more than I can say for many people. Maybe I don't always appreciate their harsh tone, but I appreciate the sentiment. Plus, the harsh tone does have the added benefit of making you stand up and notice, and it makes my blog more popular to boot. I am not kissing up to them, but I certainly don't think they need to be derided for their passionate writings. However, I have never been smug, and there is no reason to call me names.

2. This is no excuse, but I the reason I have not written out my whole philosophy on Israel in the first two blogposts is because I am also busy doing other things. I do 6 hours of radio a week, speaking gigs, chesed gigs (like the Sheva Brachot my wife and I threw for friends last night). This all in addition to being a dad, managing the radio station, and in general being a grown up which includes dealing with finances, health, exercise, leisure, and not to mention, trying to keep the commandment of learning Torah day and night. So Mike and SK, I do appreciate the immediacy of your demands, but let this blog develop and I do hope that with time we can come with some useful ideas.

3. Now to (some) of the issues: Some of SK's and Mike's points are spot on. Without real direction, this war and this country will go downhill. However, we should never forget the issue of demographics, that is, Jewish demographics. Last year over 50% of first graders in Israel came from observant homes.  There is more Torah in today's Israel then has ever been in Jewish history. Our state was founded by people who believed that they can create a new Jew who has broken from the shackles of Galut Jewry and is free from religious obligations. Ironically, but not surprisingly, they were dead wrong as today's Israel is a bastion of Torah and Torah-thinking. So one of my core beliefs is: We just have to hold on. The anti-Zionist elements will fade away - they will simply expire with time. So just hold on, keep having kids, educate them, build Jerusalem, ingather the Jews, and just hold on.

4. Regarding flags: It's not meaningless. Look at this story: German Police Removed Israeli Flag 'To Calm' Muslims: "During the demonstration, which went through our street, the police broke into our flat and removed the flag of Israel, the statement of the police was to de-escalate the situation because many youth demonstrators were on the brink of breaking into our apartment house." So you can see clearly that the flag of support infuriates the bad guys and has meaning. When people put up the flag they put themselves on the line for Israel.

5. I believe that one of the key steps to changing Israel is education. We have been un-educated from knowing our Biblical roots and our Jewish mission. We must reverse that trend. I believe that the army is a key place for Zionist education. The army is always more nationalistic and Zionistic then the rest of the population. The army also know how to indoctrinate... I mean teach. See the great work that has been done by the Chief IDF rabbi who has said: Army rabbinate needs to inculcate Jewish values. I have more to say about this, but I will leave it for another blog post.

6. Practicality. Every one of us needs to ask a simple question: If I love Israel, then what can I do about it? Because this blog and this station appeals mostly to Americans, I often limit myself to addressing the practical things that Americans can do, namely, encourage Aliyah and make Aliyah. Why Aliyah? Because there is more to Israel then meets the eye and what Israel really needs to return to its true roots is its sons and daughters. I believe that the very ingathering itself will make all the difference because the Jewish soul will awaken when the body of Israel is complete. That is why I am always pushing the Aliyah button. And, I am constantly being rewarded with seeing that awakening take place. People are constantly stopping me and telling me that our radio station and Kumah have inspired them to make Aliyah. It's really working.

7. More practicality for American Jews. It's time to break with America. America is clearly breaking with Israel. See Anne Bayefsky's "Shame on Bush and Condi" in which she writes: "Betrayal. No other word describes the reversal of American foreign policy that took place on the night of Jan. 8 when the U.S. refused to veto the Security Council resolution on Gaza. A president whose friendship and alliance with Israel once appeared honest, perceptive and unshakable, decided two weeks before leaving office to throw Israel to the wolves. The resolution calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and does not even mention the word "Hamas."" In short, America backed the Arabs and Iran instead of us.

America is holding us back big time and we must cut loose. Moshe Feiglin said on my show that for every gun that Israel gets from the US, our enemies get 5. They are holding back our people, they are supplying and backing our enemies, and they are limiting our reach. American Jews must stop believing that by supporting America they are supporting Israel - the opposite is the truth. It's time to stop taking American money and it's time to be independent. For Israel to thrive, we need to start being our own superpower and not be a client state.

That is all for now, but we have much more to talk about.

Yishai